-Down to Earth Demand farm income commission; urge political parties to make it an election issue A number of farmers' organisations got together on Thursday to demand a minimum living income equivalent to that of agricultural scientists for all farm households in the country and asked political parties to make it a part of their poll manifesto. Citing NSSO findings, they said the average monthly income of farm households in the country...

-The Business Standard The future of the Bill will be decided by the next government The United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) attempt to overhaul the 50-year legislation governing the corruption-ridden mining sector has fallen through with the new mining Bill lapsing. The Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Bill had proposed sharing of miners' Profits with the project-affected, among others, but with the Lok Sabha being dissolved, the Bill has lapsed. Many from the sector...

-The Business Standard The recent US-India friction over trade is being driven by Big Pharma Apart from the deterioration of the business environment generally, which impacts both domestic and foreign investors, retrospective taxation has figured most prominently in the media as the principal cause of growing scepticism among foreign investors. Entirely missing from the discourse has been an equally potent factor with wholly foreign origins: the hijacking of the economic policy...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: As many as 229 of the 480 apartments meant to rehabilitate slum families were sold in the open market by a builder redeveloping a large slum redevelopment project in Goregaon west. Despite stop work notices by the authorities in 2007, some of the buildings on the 13-acre plot near the Goregaon bus depot, were built in violation of the coastal development zone (CRZ) norms. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority...

-The New York Times BOLLIKUNTA, India - Latha Reddy Musukula was making tea on a recent morning when she spotted the money lenders walking down the dirt path toward her house. They came in a phalanx of 15 men, by her estimate. She knew their faces, because they had walked down the path before. After each visit, her husband, a farmer named Veera Reddy, sank deeper into silence, frozen by some terror...